PF.ALE.] THEKMAL SPRINGS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 327 

 Table of thermal springs of the United States — Continued. 



Locality. 



State 



or Territory. 



Higliest tem- 

 perature. 





Alaska .. 

 do 











do 





. . do 





...do 





.. .. do . . 



...do 





do 



....do 





do . 



33* 











* This spring never freezes, and wlien this temperature was obtained the air was at 10° F., so that it 

 is properly a thermal spring. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



THERMAL SPRINGS OF MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES, AND 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Our knowledge of the thermal springs of Mexico, Central America, 

 the West Indies, and South America is comparatively meager, being 

 limited mainly to the casual mention of various travelers, and the cata- 

 logue appended to this chapter is therefore deficient, especially in the 

 record of temperatures. Very few travelers have the means of obtain- 

 ing the temperatures accurately, and usually they simply state that the 

 springs are warm, hot, nearly boiling, or boiling, their thermometers 

 being in most cases their own bodies, which we know are not at all re- 

 liable for such purposes. 



The volcanic band extending southward from North America through 

 Mexico, Central America, and South America is second only to that 

 extending from Kamtschatka, through Jai)an and Formosa, into the 

 Eastern Archipelago, and in regions of such extensive volcanic action 

 we naturally look for a considerable development of thermal springs, 

 and that we do not look in vain is shown in our catalogue, incomplete 

 as it undoubtedly is. With extended knowledge in the future, the list 

 will be enlarged, and areas of veritable geysers, equal to any now known, 

 may possibly be discovered. 



MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 



An almost continuous line of volcanoes stretches through Mexico 

 and Central America. Twenty-five active volcanoes, according to 

 Judd, are known to exist in Central America. The distribution of ther- 

 mal springs corresponds to that of the volcanoes.* One of the vol- 

 canoes of Guatemala, viz, the Yolcan de Agua or Water Volcano, might 

 be con.sidered as a geyser on a grand scale, as it erupts water during 

 its i)eriods of activity. 



At Aguas Calientes, near Los Banos, in the neighborhood of San 

 Luis Poto.si, Mexico, there is a geyser from which the water si)outs 

 to the height of 10 or 12 feet with a great escape of steam, the column 

 of which can be seen at a great di stance. t 



On the slope of San Andres, an ancient volcano of Mexico, there is 



* Volcanoes, by John W. Judd, New York, 1881, p. 227. Mexico ia probably in- 

 cluded, altbouf^h not ho stated. 



tSummerland Sketches in Mexico, «&c., by Felix Oswald, Phil., 1880. 



